Norwegian duo Konradsen offer a warm, slow-burning meditation on devotion with “Efficiency” (ft. Beharie), a smoldering indie folk reverie off their forthcoming third album ‘Hunt, Gather’ that finds strength not in urgency or spectacle, but in patience, presence, and the long practice of choosing each other.

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Stream: “Efficiency” – Konradsen

Love doesn’t always arrive like lightning.

Sometimes it shows up as repetition – as choosing each other again in the mundane, in the middle distance, in the slow accumulation and everyday practice of a shared life: The daily meals, the softened edges, the unspoken forgiveness, the small mercies that only time can teach you to notice. Konradsen’s “Efficiency” (feat. Beharie) holds that kind of devotion with both warmth and weight – an instantly seductive, smoldering indie folk reverie that moves at its own pace, slow and spellbinding, like a late-night conversation you don’t want to end. It’s the sound of closeness built in real time: Softly strummed guitars and unhurried percussion, a hush of strings in the background, and voices so steady and intimate they feel like hands at the small of your back, guiding you gently away from the world’s constant rush.

To you I am a saint
A number two
A memory from the past
You hold onto

Let’s slow down and be brave
Eat some food
It always gives us strength
And keeps us true

Released January 9, “Efficiency” arrives as the second single from Konradsen’s forthcoming third album Hunt, Gather, due out March 27 via 777 Music. The Northern Norwegian duo – comprised of vocalist and pianist Jenny Marie Sabel and multi-instrumentalist Eirik Vildgren – have spent the better part of a decade carving out one of indie folk’s most intimate, emotionally resonant worlds. Their music has always moved with a rare patience: Warm pianos, hushed guitars, subtle brass and strings, and production that feels tactile and lived-in, like sound you can almost touch. Across their Norwegian Grammy-winning debut Saints and Sebastian Stories and its deeply rooted follow-up Michael’s Book on Bears, Konradsen have built a body of work defined by emotional precision, communal spirit, and a profound sense of place – records that Atwood Magazine has long celebrated, and that have made the duo a personal favorite within these pages for years now.

With Hunt, Gather, Konradsen aren’t abandoning that foundation so much as widening the frame.

Written partly while the duo were scoring a short film set in Sabel’s hometown, the album grows out of field recordings, home studios, and the shifting realities of adulthood – parenthood, work, partnership, and the ongoing choice to build a life with someone. Where earlier records leaned heavily into homecoming and community, this new chapter turns inward, asking harder questions about devotion, endurance, and what it means to protect closeness over time. Songs like “Nick of Time” (ft. Gia Margaret) and “Efficiency” point toward a record less concerned with grand gestures than with emotional stewardship – music that lingers, slows the pulse, and makes space for love that deepens not through drama, but through care, patience, and presence.

Let’s talk about it
What you do to me
Speak your mind and be done

Write a letter to my man
Acid lines that explain
How I reason
If I’m all that you have
Then you should’ve
made me believe it

“Efficiency” takes its title from a word we’re taught to admire – a virtue of modern life, a shorthand for productivity, progress, and emotional self-sufficiency. But in Konradsen’s hands, efficiency becomes something heavier, more complicated: An antagonist to intimacy. It’s the instinct to streamline feeling, to skip the hard conversations, to move on instead of sitting with discomfort. The song lingers in that uneasy space where love is no longer new, where routines replace adrenaline, and where staying requires intention rather than impulse. Rather than rejecting that stage outright, “Efficiency” asks what might happen if we stopped treating slowness as failure – if we let relationships unfold at a human pace, imperfections and all, and allowed time itself to deepen the bond instead of eroding it.

For Konradsen, the song’s emotional core lives in the space between falling in love and staying in love.

“‘Efficiency’ portrays a kind of love that isn’t always immediate or all-consuming, but one that endures nonetheless – a relationship where time, patience, and a willingness to see the beauty in each other’s imperfections are essential,” they explain. “It touches on a phase many people recognize: When the distance between two people can feel greater than before, yet the bond remains strong.”

Jenny Sabel puts it even more plainly: “I tend to separate falling in love from actually loving someone. The early stages are intense and emotional, but the love that comes from years of choosing each other is deeper – and should be praised more.” In a culture obsessed with immediacy, she notes, “efficiency is the name of the game… We want things to happen quickly, and if it doesn’t, we move on. And by doing so, we never get to feel that strong bond that can only grow out of time.”

To you I am a child
On speakerphone
Running out to hide
Raised on efficiency

Efficiency
What you do to me
Let’s be frank and move on

Find me in the crowd
Scratch my back
We’ll fold into a napkin
And hold on tight

This tension – between a world that demands speed and a love that asks for time – is etched into every line of “Efficiency.” Sabel sings from the uneasy middle of a long-term bond, where intimacy has weight and history, and closeness can feel fragile in ways infatuation never does: “To you I am a saint, a number two. A memory from the past you hold onto.” There’s tenderness in her words, but also a quiet fear – the sense of being known so fully that you risk being taken for granted. When the chorus arrives – “Running out to hide / Raised on efficiency” – it lands not as accusation, but as confession: A recognition of how modern life trains us to rush past the very relationships that need time most.

That vulnerability opens into one of the song’s most beautifully profound ideas: That love isn’t meant to preserve us exactly as we are, but to alter us – slowly, mutually, and irreversibly. “For me, it’s about letting a relationship change you,” Sabel says. “People often say ‘never change,’ and I get the point, but we should actually wish for someone to change – to evolve, learn and grow. You learn each other’s flaws and strengths, and ideally help shape them into something better. Maybe instead of ‘never change,’ we should be saying: I hope you change and take me with you on that journey.” It’s a vision of partnership rooted not in permanence, but in evolution – a shared willingness to be shaped by time, by experience, and by each other.

That belief – that love deepens through patience, change, and shared endurance – shapes not just the lyrics, but the song’s pacing and physical presence.

“Efficiency” emerged from an unexpected starting point – a reference that pushed Konradsen somewhere unfamiliar, slower, more soulful. “Halfway through, we knew the track needed another voice,” they recall. “Our producers had been working with Beharie a long time… We knew we wanted to invite him to the studio one day, and that’s how ‘Efficiency’ came together.” An acclaimed Norwegian singer/songwriter in his own right, Beharie brings fresh warmth and depth to an already soul-stirring performance. His voice enters like a deepening shadow, grounding the song’s emotional gravity and reinforcing its central truth: Love doesn’t need to be loud to be profound.

Such openness to change extends beyond the song itself and into the making of Hunt, Gather, a record shaped by creative curiosity and a growing trust in collaboration. Rather than protecting a fixed version of their sound, Konradsen allowed the album to expand outward – inviting new voices in, following instinct over expectation, and letting inspiration lead wherever it wanted to go.

As they put it, “We’ve just tried to go where we felt inspired to go musically. Collaborations ended up being one of the most creatively energizing parts of the process. We’ve admired both Gia and Beharie (and other collabs on this record) for a long time, so inviting them into this world felt natural (and luckily they said yes). We’re branching even more out on this album and that feels really good.” That spirit is felt throughout “Efficiency” itself – a song that thrives on shared space, emotional exchange, and the kind of connection that deepens when more than one voice is allowed to shape the story.

Ultimately, “Efficiency” feels less like a love song than a gentle act of resistance – a refusal to let intimacy be flattened by speed, productivity, or emotional shorthand.

“We hope the song can live alongside people in their everyday lives – something that slows things down,” Konradsen share. “Ironically, it came together very quickly. But every time we hear it now, time seems to stretch. We smile, sing along, maybe dance a little bit.” As a window into Hunt, Gather, the song doesn’t just signal a new era for the band – it makes a smoldering, persuasive case for patience, presence, and the radical beauty of being together over time. For me, it lands as something rare and deeply true: A song that understands long-term love not as a compromise, but as a shared life built intentionally and in motion – in the ordinary moments, the hard ones, and the steady miracle of still finding each other there.

Konradsen recently sat down with Atwood Magazine to talk about the story behind “Efficiency,” their collaboration with Beharie, and how Hunt, Gather reflects a new season of creativity and emotional evolution. Read our conversation below, and spend some time with “Efficiency” – a song that honors love not as lightning, but as something built hour by hour, day by day, in the steady act of choosing each other.

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:: stream/purchase Efficiency here ::

:: connect with Konradsen here ::

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Stream: “Efficiency” – Konradsen

A CONVERSATION WITH KONRADSEN

Jenny Sabel: Much love to you too! We’re two people living in Northern Norway, making music together with friends and people we connect with. We’ve been at this for ten years now, and it still feels just as meaningful. This album was pure joy to make – easily the smoothest and most fun process we’ve had across all three records. Working with our producers, Hans Olav Settem and Marit Othilie Thorvik, felt effortless. The music is grounded and tactile, but this time around we allowed ourselves to move in a few different directions, which felt both freeing and fun.

Jenny Sabel: We started making this album about a year and a half ago, while also composing music for a short documentary about Jenny’s hometown. One day, the film’s director came into the studio with a very specific reference – “Borrowed Time” by Solveig Slettahjell, Knut Reiersrud, and In the Country. That reference gave us a framework we wouldn’t normally have chosen, and that’s often where the most interesting ideas show up. The song ended up being something entirely our own, but it wouldn’t exist without that starting point.
Halfway through, we knew the track needed another voice. Our producers had been working with Beharie a long time, and we’d been listening to his then-unreleased album When the Silence Gets Too Loud in the studio. We knew we wanted to invite him to the studio one day, and that’s how “Efficiency” came together.

Jenny Sabel: I tend to separate falling in love from actually loving someone. The early stages are intense and emotional, but the love that comes from years of choosing each other is deeper – and should be praised more. In our times, efficiency is the name of the game in many (if not all) aspects of life. We want things to happen quickly, and if it doesn’t, we move on. And by doing so, we never get to feel that strong bond that can only grow out of time.

Jenny Sabel: For me, it’s about letting a relationship change you. People often say “never change,” and I get the point, but we should actually wish for someone to change – to evolve, learn and grow. You learn each other’s flaws and strengths, and ideally help shape them into something better. Maybe instead of “never change,” we should be saying: I hope you change and take me with you on that journey.

Jenny Sabel: We’ve just tried to go where we felt inspired to go musically. Collaborations ended up being one of the most creatively energizing parts of the process. We’ve admired both Gia and Beharie (and other collabs on this record) for a long time, so inviting them into this world felt natural (and luckily, they said yes). We’re branching even more out on this album and that feels really good.

Jenny Sabel: We hope the song can live alongside people in their everyday lives – something that slows things down. Ironically, it came together very quickly. But every time we hear it now, time seems to stretch. We smile, sing along, maybe dance a little bit!

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:: stream/purchase Efficiency here ::

:: connect with Konradsen here ::

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Stream: “Efficiency” – Konradsen

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